In the second of Stepchange’s guest blogs as part of their Debt Awareness Week, today they look at budgeting…

Step 2: Take control

A personal budget is important because you can only ever be made to pay back an unsecured debt (such as a credit card) at a rate you can afford. You should be paying them off with your ‘disposable income’.

This is the money you have left once you’ve paid priorities like rent, mortgage, household bills, food and living costs. Seeing how much money you have spare after accounting for these things is important.